The motives are not yet clear, but an unknown pilot/squad has decided to create a Flashfire shortage by removing Flashfires from stations as well a removing the Cesium needed to produce Flashfires.  It is not known whether the continued disappearance of all of the Flashfires that have been made is due to the activity of this squad/individual, or the hoarding of Flashfires by panicking TRI pilots.

Because they are used fairly quickly and because so many TRI pilots have become dependent upon them, control of FF production has become a popular way of bringing TRI to a standstill.  The initial effort to control FF production was by the now-defunct Independent Space Union (ISU) and it's infamous Flashfire Blockade.

While ISU attempted to control by force, the mysterious mover(s) behind the current FF shortage have used the Cesium shortage to its advantage.  Cesium now must be painstakingly extracted from Radioactive Ores and it is an extremely time-consuming process.

DSM, Inc. is currently testing production optimization, but early reports were that Amananth produced between 19 and 40 Flashfires per unit of Cesium -- dependent upon whether the station was well supplied with food and water.

  DSM, Inc. Publishes
Mining Research

DSM, Inc. one of the foremost mining organizations in TRI space, recently published its research on ore compositions and mining yields.  Professional and "occasional" miners have hailed the report as invaluable.

"People are beginning to realize that without dedicated miners, the 'Reconstruction' will, inevitably fail," said Grizwald Gonzalez -- founder and CEO of DSM. "I founded DSM because I believe the Quantar faction is superior than the others at generating base commodities through mining; and because the galaxy will most benefit from Quantar mining efforts if haulers are provided sufficient quantities of base commodities in key centralized locations that make it profitable for them to take commodities where they are needed."

Gonzalez went on to say that the DSM research was made public because DSM felt that fostering competition in the mining market was good for TRI and good for his company.

According to DSM officials, the mining research was conducted at DSM's Quanus Amani station, by actually mining the various asteroid types, sending all types not being studied at the time to Q-SDS, and then refining the type being studied and recording the amounts of commodities created. The pricing figures on the report for commodities is the unmodified price (no /setprice) TRI sets as default at POS stations. The prices for the ore itself are based on figures from selling ore to Amananth station.

The DSM Mining Report is available in two versions:

Hyperweb Link

Datasheet Link

Attempts to Derail Geneticorp Rebuffed

Quantar forces were unable to stop a well-organized, well-funded operation delivering an advanced new security system to the Geneticorp headquarters. The Unregulated Unaffiliated News Net (UUNN) filed the following report on 104.7.29:

This past Tuesday night saw many curious events revolving around the on-going GeNetiCorp saga. As usual, Hyperial space was hopping with activity and conflict between Solrain forces aiding the Amber Fist geneticist Dr. Glasgow Nifirti and Quantar forces aiding the Fourth Tribe. UUNN has tried to piece together as accurate a picture of events as possible base on all the eyewitness reports (and perhaps a few rumors) we could gather.

It seems that Solrain began the evening with a triple pronged attack that then converged later. One Solrain group led by DragonEye and 3rd Battalion was apparently sent on a secretive mission to Amananth. A second wing consisting of Solicidal ships began the evening in Octavian space stopping possible Quantar assistance from that quarter (OEC and Quantar forces were seen flying together against Solicidal earlier in the week). And the third group, composed of DragonEye was sent to the constant hotbed of Hyperial space where they had their decoy cargo (Solrain basic flight equipment) stolen by Quantar burglar craft and then had most of their fleet destroyed by Quantar fighter craft. Yet, though much scanning of shipping was done and a little theft performed, Quantar forces did not utilize pirate registry hacks resulting in more than one bounty being issued by the STCC.

Solicidal reinforcements were sent to Hyperial with the next DragonEye convoy and eventually drove out the Quant forces. At that point, the Quants apparently believed that their window of opportunity had slipped past them, because the bulk of the Solrain fleet was later seen hastily using the Docking MODX Custom Producer in Ekoos Stop and flying off toward Hyperial space virtually unopposed. Though 3rd Battalion was held in ready reserve against the possibility of another Quantar attack, it simply did not materialize.

Dr. Nifirti commented only that his station's newly upgraded security measures would prevent even TRI officials from being able to defeat the standard POS security /invitation system. GeNetiCorp is reportedly stocking up on Solrain Stout for a massive grand opening ceremony slated for August 13th.

Fourth Tribe representative Charlov said only that Quantar should be proud of the determination and honor displayed by its pilots, and issued one final warning to Nifirti. "Sometimes pockets have holes and keys slip through them. Submit your entire laboratory to a neutral TRI sponsored investigation or we will rain fire upon your heathen parade. Friday the 13th indeed."

New Community Forums Established

In the aftermath of the removal of "General" and "Squad Silo" forum on JOSSH, two new sites have jumped in to fill the void:  JumpgateWeb and Joystick Required.  While the JOSSH forums still host the Help, Suggestions and Ideas, Technical Support, Bug Report, Plot Events and Discussions and Fiction message areas.

The removal of General Chat and Squad Silo forums caused significant controversy and more than a few "I'm Quitting" posts.  NetDevil's position was that too many resources were required to police those forums.

In general, the community seems to have adapted well to the new locations, but there is concern that there may be more fragmentation of communications and also that new players may not be aware of the new community sites.

GAME DEVELOPMENTS.

The New Economy has begun to take hold. While equipment is, for the most part, overly-plentiful, some basic commodities such as Carbon, Cesium, Copper (see example graph), Iron and Water have been in short supply.  This has created a real purpose for dedicated miners and haulers, as evidenced by the current Quantar faction mission. 

Where Faction Missions used to be fairly straight-forward, requiring a minimal amount of hauling-in commods and focusing on brokering and running, the Quantar have had to scavenge and mine for commodities like iron and carbon to maintain production of the Construction Materials and Composites needed for the mission.

We have high hopes that the new economy will continue to present new challenges for the Jumpgate community to meet (e.g. Cesium/Flashfire "shortage"), as this creates purpose for the non-fighter-pilots and adds tremendous depth to the game.

Online Numbers appeared to improve in July -- especially later in the month where new pilots were a common sight and online pilot counts during prime-time were breaking the 80 mark.  It does not sound like much, but look where we've been.

Unfortunately either the ISP change (resulting in JOSSH being inaccessible for a few days) or the August vacation season -- and probably BOTH -- have taken their toll.  Hopefully September will see lots of vacationers streaming back -- not to mention the college students who find more time to play in the dorm than they do at home all summer. :)

MMORPG.COM RATINGS have improved!  The Jumpgate rating in the MMORPG "game list" has soared from 5.8 (in July) to 6.7 -- the result of an underground marketing effort by our outstanding and dedicated community.  But not nearly enough have weighed-in.

In order to be able to rate a game, you need to register on MMORPG.COM, and then work up your user-rating by making a few posts -- which should not be hard at all for hard-core gamers.  And you can  plug JG in your posts, too! ;)

A small investment of your time could be invaluable in helping revitalize the player-base.

WANT TO HELP?  If you have story/article ideas, or any other kind of suggestions, let us know!  Volunteers to write stories and articles, create artwork, take screenshots of "storyline" and "news" events (even videos!), or record (voice) sidebar reports on some of the key stories -- ALL would be welcome. 

The purpose of Darkspace Dispatch is to showcase the creativity that abounds in our small-but-dedicated player base, and to demonstrate how Jumpgate makes such an excellent framework for that creativity to be demonstrated.  It really is the best feature of this game.

 
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